Thursday, October 16, 2014

Planning ahead

Day 16 - 31 Day Challenge
To see this series from the beginning, click HERE.

Life is moving along at a very fast pace around here.  With doctor appointments, karate classes, piano lessons, church activities our weeks can get pretty full.  I have been trying to plan menus for our evening meals.  If I accomplish this, it takes a LOT of stress off the entire day.  That question, "What's for dinner?" looms large from the three men in my house.  If I have an answer ready, all is right with the world and they can go about their business knowing food is in the future.

There have been times when my wonderful husband comes home from work and dinner is not on the table. It's not even on the stove or in the oven.  I know I must rapidly come up with a tried and true - fallback recipe.  Pancakes are usually the answer.

Planning ahead really reduces so many problems.  Knowing what should happen and making the plan work is soothing, not just for me but for the boys too.  If we start our day with a rundown of the day's schedule, activities, and menu, we stand a much better chance of having a good day.  If I don't take those five or ten minutes to go over the day, I'm the only one who knows the script.  It frustrates me when no one else is following the script that only I know.  So I need to work harder at sharing the script.

As I type this, a roast is in the crockpot, the boys are doing schoolwork, and a plan has been laid out for the busyness of our evening.  We have two different obligations tonight that involves three of the four of us in two different locations at the same time.  Plans have been made so that the boys will be involved or supervised and the two adults will be able to fulfill their duties. AND we will be fed while doing it.  If I had not looked at the day planner or figured out supper this morning, this evening would be totally chaotic and none of us would enjoy anything from 6:00 on.  Supper would be in stages or none of us would eat until 10:00 (yes, that has happened here a time or twn).

My fantastic man helped me with the script for today.  He knows the who, what, when, where of it all and knows he is part of the how it will get done.  We try to sit down on Sunday evenings and look at the week so nothing pops us and surprises us.  We are a team.

When we plan ahead family life runs smoother; my individual life has much less stress and goals are easier to focus on.  Have you planned your work so you can work your plan?

Let's do this.

1 comment:

  1. Just wrote a big post about meal planning this week myself! It prevents so many headaches and freak outs!

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